| Motorcycle rides and riders in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia | |||||||
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06-01-2008, 08:51 PM
| #1 |
| McLovin'  Joined: Sep 2007 From: PDX.....Tempe? I Ride: faster than Djoplin riding 1-up | [Photo] Ride Report: Fri. 30th, Klickitat Original ride thread here. Total mileage: 290  Riders: Me/MCA8690 (red/white R6), Mark/mfrankpdx (wine R6), Mark/marksvfr (F4i), and Ivan/gsxrcora77 (750). Route (courtesy of Lee. THANKS!!!):  The ride: . .We met up at the Gateway Starbucks between 9:00 and 9:20, shooting the breeze and nervously watching the skies. I pored over Mark's new F4i enviously for the first time, taking in the beautiful full Akra system and other goodies. Well done man! . .Martin ("Smoke", 1k) ran into us as we were preparing to depart, as he was working at the Baja Fresh nearby and went to get some coffee. Good seeing ya man, nice surprise! Sorry you couldn't join : ( . .Everyone gassed up, our Frappuchino's beginning to settle, I led us into Washington via 205. We were concerned about the WSP presence on our slabbing portion of this ride (Hwy. 14 in particular), as point "A" to "C" [see above] was a good distance. Thankfully, the asphalt gods blessed us with relatively clear roads and NO 5-0, and we were able to enjoy some of the "twisties" and soak in the beautiful scenery as the clouds parted and blue skies prevailed. The Columbia was filled with kiteboarders, para-sailors, surfers, you name it. It was very peaceful and zen-like to cruise through these swooping hills and through the multiple tunnels (past Carson) at an open pace, casting wistful glances at the kiteboarders' sails dancing across the waterline. . .We were treated to an awesome display of birds and various other wildlife along the Columbia, the highlight being the bird hunt I spotted. A few miles past Carson, I noticed two birds swooping and darting aggressively, maybe 15 meters above us. The cool thing was, the "bird of prey" was actually much smaller than the larger bird it was hunting, and this larger bird was getting nipped and clipped by the little, very determined falcon. It was quite an event to watch unfold above you, indeed. . .As we approached the turn-off for White Salmon (point "C"), I spotted a turn-off that looked ideal for shooting scenic pictures of our bikes. It turned out to be the entrance to a smaller fish hatchery, just feet above the Columbia. As we lined our bikes up along this beautiful gravel turn-out lined with boulders, I was preparing my camera when I noticed a guy climbing out of his car, with two cameras slung around his neck. Motioning for him to come over, I called out "Would you mind shooting some pictures of us?" As he approached, I noticed that these were not ordinary cameras, you see.  They were Canon Mark I and II cameras, both shod in L-series supertelephoto lenses (2k+ for one of these suckers, and I'm just talking about the lens). Turns out he was Thomas Boyd, a staff photographer for the Oregonian . .Very generously, he agreed to shoot some pics of us all, and graciously swapped his lens onto my camera body : ) After he finished shooting, some with my camera, several photos on his, he told us to watch oregonlive.com and he might be able to put some up there  . .Now to the ride. [Unfortunately, Mark (F4i) was summoned by the ever-elusive "ex-wife" to unexpectedly pick up his kids back in Portland, so he had to break off, taking the Hood River Bridge back to the OR side of the Columbia and slabbing it back home.] . .Me, Mark and Ivan turned onto 141, which was sporadically covered by large clods of dirt and smaller branches until the turn-off at BZ Corner onto BZ/Glenwood road. After topping off our tanks there, we got our first taste of the day's real twisties as we began the loop towards Klickitat. The roads were near-perfect, with some initial dust on the upward jaunt to Glenwood. No traffic to speak of, just livestock and a lush tree-line that seemed to fan out in all direction ; ) . .After turning onto Glenwood Hwy, we enjoyed one of the most solitary portions of our ride, going 25-30 minutes at a time without seeing a single vehicle on the roads  Klickitat was amazing, with long, every-steady radius sweepers that seemed to beckon. It was truly un-nerving what kind of a pace you find yourself in, lazily swooping around big corners, L hand on your side, when you don't pass or see another vehicle for almost a half hour. When we pulled over, midway through Klickitat, we all looked at each other and asked, almost in unison, "HOW FAST were you going through those sweepers?". . . Then, in simultaneous response, "Every time I glanced down, it was like 90!! I thought I was doing 60!" We all burst out laughing, because we weren't even riding aggressively or even leaning off, I honestly did this entire portion with my hand on my side, but the sweepers were so long and monotonous that your pace would just slowly creep up on you. After 25 minutes of this, 75 begins feels like 40, with endless forest surrounding your horizon, and clean roads underfoot. . .After settling into a very subdued pace, on account of the 1-lane/un-painted roads and the lack of guardrails alongside the treacherous mountain roads that define parts of Goldendale Highway, we found ourselves descending back into the valley floor, coasting along the snaking road that compliments the flowing rapids of the Klickitat Springs. For the most part, the roads were clear and dry, with the exception of the sharpest, (10mph) hairpin uphill corners on Glendale which were mostly covered in tracks of gravel. Again, very minimal traffic and no police presence. . .Back on Highway 14, we found ourselves behind a semi-undercover WSP SUV, so we were relegated to watching the Columbia flow past as we cautiously followed along at a relaxed, sub-60 pace. A few miles outside of the turnoff to the final half of our "figure 8" [see map above], we took the opportunity to pull over at a gas station near Home Valley to gas up and receive a well-deserved snack break. The sun was quite high in the sky at this point, and the heat was beginning to develop, although it didn't feel like much more than 75 or so. Perfect conditions for a ride, so we finished our sports drinks and the last bits of our energy bars and mounted up, to complete the few miles before turning onto Wind River Road. . .After slabbing to the base of the "real" portion of Wind River, we passed MMAGuy1970, who was coasting to the bottom of this glorious set of uphill twisties. Recognizing him and waving him down (as he had posted that he'd try to run into us during our ride), we said hello and inquired as to the conditions of the approaching corners. He warned that they were in worse shape than from our ride 2 weeks earlier, but upon cautiously departing uphill, I soon noticed that [at least the uphill portion] seemed to be in better shape than from our prior ride, where Lee lost traction in this vid... . .After completing Wind River, we pulled over for a pit stop at the top (with big crescent-moon parking lot), then jumped right back into the action, eager to carve up the road that is NF-90, towards Cougar. As we passed the Ranger Station outside of this road, cruising at 50 in a 45, I passed Al (I believe) in his Cougar police SUV, who immediatly stopped in the middle of the road as soon as we passed him, and did nothing more. Can someone please explain why he and George do this (stop in the middle of the road but don't flip a bitch) when bikes go by???  Anyways back to the story, we figured "wtf" and took NF-90 a little more cautiously than usual, ever-aware of the potential of George being staked out around the next sweeper.......but we lucked out, and were able to enoy ourselves on this epic stretch of road. We passed a group of 4-5 bikes, including a black Ninja and some naked/cafe bikes moving at a good clip. I was coming out of a corner leaned well over, but straightened up enough to give the last rider (Ninja) the "helmet tap" for good cause. As usual, this section was in excellent shape, but (in the direction we were headed) there is a fatal-yet-subtle layer of gravel right at the lip to one of the bridges in a L-hand sweeper. I believe it is the 2nd bridge. If you are not cautious and approach in any manner of lean, it WILL lowside you into tomorrow. . .Another quick pit stop in Cougar, and realizing the time (almost 3:00), and that Mark had to be at work at 4, we hopped back onto the road, trying to make up time back towards Portland. Catching the 503 junction, we had a blast on that section (Mark's first time!), and I always enjoy what I refer to as the "Corkscrew" (a la Laguna) set of turns in this section. It's in the first 1-2 miles of 503, after a R hander uphill, where you are greeted with a perfectly cambered L then R hander, both mild in radius, but, when combined, feel like an absolute blast on a well-set suspension. Anyone else recognize this part? Anyways, we finished up 503 at a good clip, mindful that Mark would be late but nonetheless trying to get him back into Portland quickly. Roads were clean and clear, just like the 24th ride. . .When we stopped to gas up in Battleground, Mark's boss called him and gave him the day off, so we slabbed the rest of the way home in a calm manner. As usual, there was a massive WSP presence on 500 and 205, with many a car pulled over : ( Live and learn people. Hope everyone enjoyed this ride, I had an absolute blast. Below are the pictures I was referring to, the first one taken by the O photog and the latter two shot by myself. Below these 3 are a selection of the same pictures, but edited by the friendly photogs on pnwdp.com. Thanks! All pictures were taken less than 2 miles from the point "C" on above map. All are reduced in clarity and size.        |
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06-01-2008, 09:05 PM
| #3 | |
| WMRRA Qualifier  Joined: Mar 2007 From: Fidalgo Island I Ride: Modified Sport Touring Bike | Glenwood canyon 
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06-01-2008, 10:01 PM
| #5 |
| Superbiker  Joined: Apr 2007 From: Milwaukie, Oregon I Ride: K1200R Sport; S1000RR | Mike that was one of the better ride reports I have read. Your and Bill's (SpeedGeek) Narratives of the rides are fun to read. Keep them coming. |
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